46 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



exist ill the Serapeum; and that there were, in fact, two 

 such different things Ruffinus 1 and others assert. 



But note the expansive character of the tradition, and 

 the variety of its transmutations. The horse of Bellero- 

 phon, on the island of Rhodes, says the venerable Bede, 2 

 weighed 5000 pounds, and was suspended by magnets. 

 Martial 3 says that the effigy of Mausoleus was held over 

 his tomb in like manner. As the story grew older, King 

 Theodoric,* in a letter to Boesius, applies it to a statue of 

 Cupid in the temple of Diana of Ephesus. And then last, 

 but not least, it reached its final resting place in the legend 

 of Mahomet's coffin. Since this myth furnishes the sub- 

 stance of one of the most common metaphors in use, the 

 facts on which it rests, or rather does not rest, are worth 

 stating. 



After Mahomet's death, the Meccans and Medinans dis- 

 puted possession of the body. Still another faction wished 

 the sepulchre to be in Jerusalem, as the proper place of 

 burial for all prophets. Finally Abu-Bekr interfered and 

 announced that he had heard Mahomet himself during his 

 life direct the selection of Medina. Thereupon a vault 

 was dug beneath the spot where stood the bed on which 

 the prophet slept, in the house of Ayesha. In order to 

 keep the coffin clear of the floor of the vault, it was sup- 

 ported on nine bricks, the earth being heaped about the 

 sides. That is the entire extent to which the coffin was 

 suspended in the air namely, by nine bricks put under it. 5 



: Aquil. lib., vi. Histor., c. 22; time, circa. 390 A. D. S. 

 Prosperus : De Praedicatione, 3, c. 38 ; time, circa 446 A. D. 



2 Beda. : de Sept. Mirac. Mundi ; time, circa 703 A. D. 



8 Lib. De Spectaculis, time, circa 78 A. D. 



*Cassiodor. : Variat Lib., i, Ep. 45; time, circa 500 A. D. 



r% Gagnier: Histoire de la Vie de Mahomet. 



Gibbon's note (the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. 50) 

 as to this is as follows: The Greeks and Latins have invented and pro- 

 pagated the vulgar and ridiculous story that Mahomet's iron tomb is 

 suspended in the air at Mecca (cfjfia f*Ereupit;6[j.evov, Laonicus Chalcon- 

 dyles : De Rebus Turcicis, 1. iii. 66) by the action of equal and potent 



